Dave and Dusty,
My '50 is completely stock except for 15" wheels and I have the stock
springs. I just finished rebuilding the front end with new spring shackles,
king pins, u-bolts, and shocks (gabriel red ryders). The improvement over
the ride I had before is 10fold. I have Dunlop 235-75R15 tires and I don't
suggest going any wider than that on the front with stock steering- the
steering effort becomes really difficult (even for me, 6'2" and muscular)
and you will find that the steering box and tie rod ends will wear rather
quickly. It tracks really well with what I have done. You can still tell it
is a solid axle but it actually feels safe not scary like it did before. If
you go with 60 series low profile be aware that the ride will be pretty
harsh and the motor will need to spin faster to get to the same highway
speed (not a problem if you put in taller rear end gears). I am going to go
with narrower tires on the front when I put new ones on. I know that a
monoleaf will get you lower and I expect that it will ride better but not
corner as well (less stiff). You will want to add an anti-sway bar (a good
idea anyway) My truck has stock leaves that have sagged to almost flat over
the years and I didn't remove any leaves so they wouldn't bend backwards.
The truck rides better than the 4wd heavy duty Fords I have driven. Don't
expect a car ride though. If you put in a monoleaf you may want to get a
shorter pittman arm. Keep the drag link between the steering box and
steering knuckle as parallel to the ground as possible to avoid bump steer.
Get the truck aligned before you drive it too much on the new tires.
-----Original Message-----
From: Dave [mailto:dave@juniorbaseball.com]
Sent: Wednesday, April 10, 2002 2:38 PM
To: oletrucks@autox.team.net
Subject: [oletrucks] Lowering our '50 GMC
Hi:
Dusty and Dave here again....the '50 is almost finished! New wheels (15x7
front, 15x8 rear) and tires go on this week! We want to see how it looks
with the new rims before lowering it the couple inches Dusty wants.
Questions:
I've been advised to remove a couple of leaves from the front springs - has
anyone tried this and experienced any adverse reactions to this? (Sagging or
weakened reamining springs, bouncy ride, diminished ride quality, etc.) Any
new issues raised in doing this, such as different clamps/hardware, etc.
required?
I've seen the mono-leaf conversions - do these bolt straight onto the AD
truck, or are any modifications or adaptors required? How much does this
lower it? Is the ride quality compromised?
Finally, lowering the front obviously alters the suspension and steering
geometry. Has anyone experienced adverse effects in steering due to this?
How is the handling affect?
Regarding tires, since we have stock suspension, steering, brakes, etc., I
understand that the wider the front tires, the more it will wander, and the
handling/steering suffers. How wide should we go? We're thinking about
60-series BFG T/A radials....
Thanks!
Dave Destler
oletrucks is devoted to Chevy and GM trucks built between 1941 and 1959
oletrucks is devoted to Chevy and GM trucks built between 1941 and 1959
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